recordings

The work documents part of the repertoire of the informal choir “Canta Che Non Passa”. The choir is a spontaneous group of middle age/old people that constituted a part of the NO TAV* movement in Valsusa, northern Italy. The choir’s repertoire consists mainly of protest songs adapted from preexisting musical sources, with new lyrics that have been created from scratch.

I recorded the choir during one of their rehearsals. Rather position the microphone at a certain distance from the group to capture the multiplicity of voices, I chose to focus on individual voices of those members that sat beside me. This strategy was designed to stress the fallible and imperfect nature of the chorale and place emphasis on: 1) the singular/plural dimension of collective singing; 2) the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of non-professional voices.

* As clearly stated by the name of the choir (“Canta Che Non Passa” means “Sing, So It Won’t Pass” or better “Our Singing Will Stop It”) the NO TAV movement opposes the creation of the new high speed railway line between Turin and Lyon. More info:
brief history of the no tav movement and notav.info.

The material for this work comes from a tape cassette that I found in a derelict empty house. The material consists of a series of recording-tests performed by the woman who used to live in the house. The title of the piece – your loss will be my gain – refers to the accidental discovery of the tape after years of abandonment and neglect.

In this work I play the snare-drum with a pair of microphones. The recordings explore the physical properties and affordances of the microphone and presents a more intuitive and analog way to approach audio technology. By giving a body to the microphone (by using it as a drumstick) the work reﬂects on the physical affection and corporal aspect of material culture and how this sensual attraction subverts the conventional modes of consuming technology.

The audio work presents some of the traditional oral chants that I recorded in Presegno (ValSabbia, Brescia, Italy) during the night of San Lorenzo (“the night of the shooting stars”), 10 august 2013.

What emerges from the recordings is the vital energy of the voices that take part in the singing. The voices communicate a strong feeling of togetherness and collective excitement. Singing is an expression of joy that enhances social cohesion and contributes to the formation of a certain atmosphere of shared enthusiasm and self empowerment.

The audio work documents the encounter between me and Paolo, two amateur singers that accidentally meet on the street at night time. After a short introduction, the encounter turns into a back to back chanting battle. The street becomes the stage of a spontaneous performance. The chants, a way to discover each other.

This publication includes an interview where I talk about my personal way of taking sound recording. The main themes that I discuss in the interview are: 1) the recordist as a performer 2) the act of recording as an intervention, and 3) the relational approach to the field. //// DOWNLOAD MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE BOOK \\\\ Order the book here.

Magnifying My Sphere of Power is an audio work where I sing and play drums along with a selection of my favourite hard core punk songs.

Based on my personal everyday-life musicking* activities, the project amplifies the power of music as an emotional inciter, an agitator that animates physical energy and self presence.

With this work I want to emphasize the role of the listener as a responsive agent that plays a central role in the musical process, and more generally reflect on what music listening means in terms of reconstruction of meaning (appropriation) and activation of personal agency (participation).

An elderly man tells about his former career as amateur pigeon shooter. After telling about his prizes and victories, the meaning of his stories slowly comes to surface: the desire to remain somehow attached to his life memories and not be forgotten.

Playback Instructions:
- You don’t have to concentrate on every word that the shooter says. Feel free to walk around while he’s talking.
- If the monologue exceeds your personal physical tolerance, leave the room where the recording is playing so that the shooter would suddenly find himself speaking alone with nobody listening to him (he would then realize that he has been talking for too long).
- If you like it, you can play the piece in loop, like an extended mantra. The shooter would be happy to have somebody listening to him over and over again.

This work includes two recordings of two different music rehearsal sessions that I recorded in the halls of a music school. The musicians in the recordings practice their pieces and repeat them over and over again. Their perseverance encourages listeners to understand failure as a necessary step in the process of growth. There’s no mistake you can’t learn from…